Leading Soft Skills That Employers Look While Hiring

Today’s job landscape is changing so quickly that being proficient in a technical skill and having industry specific knowledge is no longer enough to secure the job you dream of. Soft skills, also known as interpersonal, social, or emotional intelligence qualities are the set of qualities that allow employees to work together, communicate and adjust in the workplace effectively and employers from all walks of life are increasingly concerned with soft skills.

Whether you are a recent graduate, you have changed your career path, or you are simply trying to progress your career, developing these all-important soft skills may help your chances of employability. Today it is as important and we are here to help you with these very skills at OptionTrain College of Management & Technology.

So, let’s look at the most important soft skills that are valued when hiring people for jobs and why they’re valued.

1. Communication Skills: The Foundation of Success

The heart of a good team is good communication. Having effective verbal and written communication skills are important for exchanging ideas, giving useful feedback, resolving conflicts, and building working relationships with co workers, clients and management.

Employers want candidates who can:

a. Ideas and opinions may be expressed clearly and sensibly to others.

b. In meetings, in one–on–one interaction, and via email, listen actively and contribute to real conversations.

c. Adjust their communication style in relation to the audience they’re working with: customers, senior executives or technical teams.

Why it matters: As effective communicators, operations can run seamlessly in a business by avoiding miscommunications and promoting teamwork which ultimately creates morale and productivity.

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2. Teamwork and Collaboration: Thriving Together

You’ll be working with other people to achieve common goals nearly every job will demand. Thus, companies place a lot of value in the applicants able to work in a team. Teamwork is when we bring our different viewpoints together in order to create challenges and find better ways to solve challenges.

Employers look for candidates who:

a. What employers desire is to respect differences in thoughts and understand that different points of view are important.

b. Also able to help critique, and follow instruction while encouraging team efforts.

c. Demonstrate leadership qualities at the appropriate time, and to follow someone else when it’s that person’s time to lead.

Why it matters: Employees working productively together is what ensures success of companies. Healthy work environment is the domain of effective team players working together to create creativity and achieve successful results of objectives of the company.

3. Problem-Solving: Taking Challenges and making them Opportunities!

Employers prefer candidates who can think critically and who take a head on approach to challenges. But finding a quick fix isn't what problem solving is all about; you've got to understand what's actually the problem, and what all your alternatives are, and what's the best thing you can do.

Key problem-solving traits employers value include:

a. Analytical thinking: The ability to think things through, break down complex problems into smaller and smaller manageable components, and consider each of those in turn.

b. Creativity and innovation: Solving things in new ways, and thinking outside the box, producing unique solutions.

c. Resilience and adaptability: An optimistic attitude regarding difficulties, and a willingness to change tactics as is necessary.

Why it matters: In fast, iterative, high variability work environments, the ability for companies to quickly and effectively solve problems is important for them to remain resilient and competitive.

4. Adaptability and Flexibility: Embracing Change

With today’s fast changing business environment, flexibility is one soft skill companies are in search of today. No matter if it’s an alteration in the company’s strategy, a disruption in the industry or the technology they need to be ready to apply, workers need to be ready to accept different things.

Companies value candidates who:

a. Rapidly adapt to new conditions and grow in circumstances where we are expected to learn and grow.

b. They stay calm under pressure and ready to go outside of their comfort zone to take up new challenges.

c. Adopt the mind of continuous improvement and constant learning in accordance to the modern market trends, developing and discovering new abilities that push the company to further growth.

Why it matters: In a continually evolving market, employers need employees who can adapt to change without a skip of the beat in order to be competitive and flexible.

5. Emotional Intelligence (EQ): This first module is about understanding yourself and others

Emotional intelligence (EQ) refers to your ability to understand, control and influence your own emotions, as well as being able to understand and influence other people’s emotions. Employees with a high EQ have strong relationships, are efficient at stress management, and can gracefully navigate the complexity of the job.

Key aspects of emotional intelligence include:

a. Self-awareness: Know what your emotions are, how you get triggered and know your areas of strength and weakness.

b. Empathy: To understand the emotions and views of other people, so that we can then make improvements to our relationships and communication.

c. Self-regulation: It means being able to control your emotions and behaviours, especially at the stressful time or when facing situations that are difficult to deal with.

Why it matters: High EQ trains stronger leaders, develops higher cooperation and creates higher workplace morale, all of which are the hallmarks of long-term success.

6. Time Management: Mastering Productivity

In today's world of deliverables and deadlines, it helps to be a good time manager. A prospective employee should be able to focus his or her work, meet deadlines and continue working even without feeling overburdened.

Key time management traits include:

a. Prioritization: The ability to differentiate that which is important from that which is urgent and to use time well.

b. Organization: Scheduling of responsibilities, projects and tasks, to keep ourselves on course and avoid bottlenecks.

c. Efficiency: Working smarter, not harder, and using techniques and tools to maximize productivity and keep what time is being worked from being wasted.

Why it matters: Those employees who effectively manage time increase the productivity and efficiency of an organization by helping to keep the projects within timeframe and objectives are attained.

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7. Leadership: Inspiring and Guiding Others

To be a leader, you don’t necessarily need a managerial role. Being a leader involves taking the initiative, inspiring others and wanting to push projects through to completion. If you're in entry level positions this can help you stand out from the competition by demonstrating your ability to lead.

Employers look for candidates who:

a. They should take responsibility of the work of their charge and look for solutions by their own initiative.

b. Help team mates to work with you encourage and motivate them to produce a better working environment for the team.

c. They demonstrate decision making abilities, picking what to do correctly when faced with big tasks or challenges.

Why it matters: Whether or not they've got title as a leader, employers appreciate employees who can inspire others, set the example, and motivate their teams to win.

Conclusion: The Key to Career Success—Soft Skills

In today’s job market, it’s often soft skills that make the difference between candidates. Employers say they know technical abilities can be trained but the latter skills are harder to develop and are just as pivotal for long-term success in the workplace, like problem solving, communication, teamwork and emotional intelligence.

Acquisition of technical knowledge is equally important in our programs at OptionTrain College of Management & Technology, but we pay particular attention to the development of these crucial soft skills. Well, we all know that we need to be well rounded to thrive in our careers and have some leadership, teamwork, and adaptability skills in an ever-changing corporate world.

As a result, when you’ve decided to both start your own career or continue on with your existing one, you should invest time into your soft skills. With training, mentoring or even self reflection you can develop these skills and stand out from other job seekers for employers and broader opportunities.